West Bengal Assembly election 2021, June Malia profile: TMC fields Tollywood actor against BJP's Samit Kumar Das

Tollywood actor June Malia will be contesting from Medinipur on a Trinamool Congress ticket in the upcoming West Bengal Assembly elections. Malia has replaced sitting MLA Mrigendra Nath Maiti to take on BJP’s Samit Kumar Das on 27 March in the first of the eight-phased Assembly election. While campaigning in Medinipur on 23 March, Malia said that she took time to enter politics. “I took my time to get into politics. The jump is a high one but I have waited. I never make whimsical decisions, be it politics or film scripts,” said the actor. The 50-year-old started her acting career in 1996 with the film Lathi. She has also worked in movies like The Bong Connection and Meri Pyaari Bindu. Medinipur is an Assembly constituency in the Paschim Medinipur district of West Bengal. It falls under the Medinipur Parliamentary constituency. The voting will begin on 27 March, with Bengal having a maximum of eight phases continuing till 29 April. Including Medinipur, 30 Assembly seats will go to polls in the seventh phase. The results of the election will be declared on 2 May. The state is held by the AITC (also known as TMC) with an absolute majority, with Mamata Banerjee on her second consecutive term as chief minister. The ruling party is fighting a pitched battle with archrival BJP, while the Congress-led alliance is also a key player in the fray.